The reaction of startled uncomprehension among the British public and press to recent events in the north must suggest to perceptive young Unionist men and women that partition has created a political twilight zone.

His hatred for the interloper was as nothing now to his rage against Valentina, a rage that had its birth in a wondering uncomprehension of how she should prefer that coarse, swashbuckling bully to himself, the peerless Gonzaga.

He spoke with such a settled seriousness that it was difficult to be sure whether he understood the jest and played up to it in that spirit of make-believe which had drawn down the King's anger or answered out of a dull uncomprehension.

If you walked into a party and said “I self-published my book,” then the room would first go silent, a hundred eyes would stare at you with a mixture of uncomprehension and pity — and then you’d be politely or impolitely ignored for the remainder of the evening.